From: Charlie Dirksen
4/14/93 American Theater, St. Louis, MO Thanks again for the tapes, Matt. =^] Opening fairly standard .. the pre-Nirvana
segment is somewhat spacey, though (not terribly uncommon for 1993 versions). No peculiarly melodious themes, but I enjoy
Mike's gentle 'doc stroking in here! Trey is just mistily sustaining. Nirvana at 3:38. Page plays beautifully, and everyone
accompanies in kind. Mike's solo-section is fairly high on the 'doc, and is quite snappy and dramatic!!! Mike's unusually active
in here! The pre-charge is kinda strange (Mike doesn't sound that sharp, curiously, at times.. hmmm). Trey's jamming on the
second Note in particular is quite enjoyable.. "Boy" at 6:54 after a decent scream. Trey really belts out "Man" and
GAAAAAWD!!! and SHEEEEE-IT!! And "poop" (once! nice 5/28/89 tease). Weird WUDMTF vocals.. Trey's voice is
deliberately higher.. During this segment, I can't tell what Trey is saying under his breath, but he's saying something. oh well.
Tramps jam at 8:56 or so. Pretty nice stuff from Page.. and Mike's doing well towards the end of the tramps jam. That's
different! And then around 10:50 it is just Fish.. (well Mike lets out a note or two). Fish is just pounding out the YEM rhythm..
This is strange. No reaction from the audience, either. I can only imagine what the hell Trey's doing at this point (it is still only
Fish, really, around 11:40!!!). Trey comes in at about 11:50 very, very quietly noodling.. very gently. And the whole groove
quiets. Audience clapping. Trey's noodling is extremely quiet (but melodious). At 12:28 he starts repetitively grooving.. building
a theme of sorts. Still very quiet at 12:45.. Very repetitive.. At 12:57 Trey gets a little louder, but is still very gently noodling.. at
13:15 he gets more loud, and within 15 seconds, he's playing Spooky. Not merely teasing it. =^] Spooky jamming around 14
minutes.. Just total Spooky. Page starts singing a verse at 14:04, and by 14:40 Trey's jamming on the Spooky theme (fade out
to side B... thank you, audience master, right during Trey's jam, too; don't you just love tapes from AUD masters!? ;-) Not
much time (if any) cut out, though, fortunately. By 15:45 or so Trey is raging, more/less still on the Spooky theme. By 16
minutes the jam is more Oye Como Va-esque, with some serious Oye Como Va chording from Page on the keys. Trey is just
RIPPIN IT UP at 16:15 or so with the others.. yeah!! Great closing jam!! =^] =^] =^] Very excellent closing jam Bass and
drums at 16:55 with Fish just RAGING in the very opening!!!!! WOW!!!! =^] He cools off soon, though, and Mike quietly
comes in.. Mike quietly noodles.. teases Spooky a bit, too, at first. Otherwise, he is extremely laid back.. until about 17:55
when he starts pushing out, letting out some nice riffs.. and practically teasing Spooky again.. Fish kicks out a more jazzy groove
in here, but it is short-lived. Mike is playing games with Fish.. some crazy stuff in this damn B&D segment!!! Closing
WUDMTF segment at 18:49 or so. Vocal jam quickly starts up with "YO" sounds at first.. hmmmm... there's a fade out it
sounds like in this vocal jam. Did you have this on a 100, Matt? Tell me the truth.. you edited it didn't you.. Doesn't sound like
much if any of the vocal jam is lost. Some "HEY" noises.. this is one of those vocal jams in which it sounds like Trey in particular
is vocalizing something but I can't make it out. This is a very strong vocal jam.. some mouth-clacking noises, taboot. Lots of
mouth-clacking noises. OK.. ok.. It ends on vocal-harmonizing/chanting (which lasts for too long, imo). This is one hell of a long
damn vocal jam, fwiw.. at around 25:37 trey lightly noodles something that sounds vaguely similar to the Jeopardy theme, and
then OOM PAH PAH OOM PAH PAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!! =^] Total time roughly 25:40 or so. Damn I love
this Harpua!!!! (this is the DREAM-PILE Harpua, btw, with Jetson tease, not to mention a THIS IS THE END (Doors)
tease!!!) This YEM was excellent. Very, very impressive, imo. The jam segment, though it started out somewhat slow, was
quite good.. the B&D segment was unusual, and the opening and BMGS/WUDMTF segments were very good. I have to give
this version an A-/B+. I think 3/14/93 is LITTLE better.. it is more of a teasefest, and the jam segment is even more hot imo.
But this version definitely has the better "Spooky" jam. Great YEM in an EXCELLENT set of Phish! (but check out the Stash
of this show.. if you are getting 8/16/96-1 from me or from someone who gets it from me, you'll get this stash as filler on side B
of the first set... very, very niiiice Stash!!) Thanks again, Matt, for introducing me to this excellent Phish show.